Is the internet affecting the way we think?

While watching the video by PBS on the affects of using multiple devices on our children, URL: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/ , it really struck me how much our younger generation has changed the way they live.  I thought it was annoying when my daughters were constantly texting their friends while sitting with the family or even having a conversation with me, but this video showed that this is a phenomenon across the world.  The students in the video have multiple devices open at one time at all hours of the day, including class time.  I understand that this is the new culture and as teachers we have to use the same devices to engage the students, but as shown in the chapter two discussions on the Brain, using a larger portion of the brain may not necessarily be good.  Just like the body strains and breathing is heavy when one starts an exercise routine, but as the body builds endurance and strength the same routine does not strain the breathing as much.  The body becomes stronger and breathing is more efficient if one is persistent in making exercise a routine.  The same way scientists are finding that multitasking brains have memories that are disorganized and thinking is distracted and not clear. Even though the students are vehement in their belief that they are proficient in multitasking, test scores of MIT students do not back up this claim. 

In chapter 4, on teaching with technology, teachers are shown using technology to help students stay engaged, communicate and problem solve.  One teacher is even using Ning to promote the use of safe social networking, so students can form these types of learning communities.  It was interesting to see disciplinary problems in the school were resolved once the students were actively engaged in all their courses with technology.  But I liked the way the Principal could log onto their computers, from his computer, to spot check on what was happening in the classroom and how the computers were being used.

As an educator I feel it is very important to teach our students how to use this technology wisely.  Yes we have to engage them in the classroom by encouraging its use, but I feel we also need to teach them how to step away from it.  As shown by the section in the video on South Korea’s gaming addiction in the youth.  They are so captured by the games that there have even been instances of deaths when they have not eaten because they were playing a game.  Students are so worried that they will miss some form of communication that they can’t even focus.  When asked to write an essay, they can only write disconnected paragraphs because they are distracted in between their writing.  I believe we can keep our students engaged, but we should help them use the technology for the task on hand.  We can use their cell phones for doing polls, and their computers can be used for collaborative wikis, blogs and problem solving.  Perhaps students could be placed in small groups and given problems to research and solve.  This would keep them motivated to participate because the success of their group would depend on it. It would also encourage them to share ideas, debate options, and offer new solutions.    

Assessments in the 21^st Century

Assessments in the 21^st Century differ from standardized assessments in three ways: “standardized conditions, secrecy of content and individual results” (Bellanca & Brandt, 2010, p.307).  With standardized assessments the idea is that if all conditions are controlled, such as time, room, pencil used, and rules of administration, then the only variable will be the knowledge of the students.  The students work alone and are given no help by teacher or classmates.  Test content is kept confidential in order to be fair to all students, therefore students have to learn and memorize all facts possible on the subjects tested.  Individual scores are the focus of standardized tests. The idea is to “single out the best of the best” (Bellanca & Brandt, 2010, p.310).  With 21^st Century assessments variability is the norm, and is considered “neither good nor bad, but merely reflective of the complexity of the tasks and processes entailed in authentic assessments” (Bellanca & Brandt, 2010, p.319).  Instead of secrecy surrounding the test items, openness is encouraged.  Possible test questions are made available to all students and students are encouraged to contribute to the list as well. Working in teams and individually students are coached into the work habits of the new world economies, where “performance will be measured not by the success of the individual, but by the success of the team, perhaps a multinational team with members spanning the globe” (Bellanca & Brandt, 2010, p.310).  

What types of metrics are used to assess 21^st Century skills?  Does your school/district use any of these? Which would you like for your school/district to use?

As stated in this chapter “information acquisition is a necessary but insufficient condition for assessing 21^st Century skills” ((Bellanca & Brandt, 2010, p.315) “without a combination of critical thinking, problem solving, effective teamwork, and creativity, learning remains stagnant, more useful for passing a test than solving a real-world challenge” (p.314).  There are five key areas of assessment of the 21^st Century skills: learn, understand, create, explore and share.  Each of these can be applied to every core subject.  With the application of these realms to an area of study, teachers can develop lessons that are interdisciplinary and enriching.  Students will not just focus on the facts but learn to apply, explore, and create.

What is the 21^st Century take on the individual verses team results?

The definition of leadership has shifted from rank and status to influence and service. The world no longer operates on individual success, and information is no longer only the privilege of a few.  Sharing and co-creation are the new ways of operation.  Creativity and innovation are enhanced by learning from others, and exchanging ideas.  The 21^st Century framework encourages team work and individual work, keeping in mind that “exploration is an inherently collaborative endeavor” (p.319).

Consider your ideal school—How does it compare to your current school?  What do you think your students will describe as an ideal school?

In my ideal school, I would have teams of teachers for each grade level. Each would teach his/her own subject but come together with the other subject teachers to enrich each of their lessons with the five realms of learning, understanding, exploration, creativity and sharing.  Then I would like to take a leader from each of those teams and create another team to map out the curriculum from grade to grade, so that we see a progression of enrichment going from one level to the next.  I do not see this in our current school.  Each teacher just teaches in their own subject and grade level.  I think the students would enjoy the inclusion of the five realms because it would definitely engage them and allow them to apply the facts that they are expected to memorize.  This inclusion of creativity is always more fun and helps the students retain the information.

 

References:

Bellanca, J. A., & Brandt, R. S. (2010). 21st century skills: rethinking how students learn. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Comparison of 3 Frameworks for 21^st Century Skills

In this activity I chose to compare and contrast three frameworks for digital literacies.  I also created a visual of this comparison using Scribblar.  These three frameworks can be analyzed chronologically beginning with Dede’s neomillennial learning styles which were created in 2005 and “reflect the learning strengths and preferences of people who use technology now” (Bellanca & Brandt, 2010, p.64).  This framework begins to show how the learning style of the 20^th Century shifted from just getting information from the web to the 21^st Century skills of creating, collaborating and sharing information using Web 2.0 tools. The four points of emphasis are fluency in multiple media, Active learning, Expression through nonlinear, associational webs of representations, and Co-design by teachers and students.  These categories were renamed as Research and Informational Literacy, Critical Thinking, Creativity and Innovation, and Communication and Collaboration in the 2007 framework generated by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Additional categories were added by ISTE to reflect the importance of technology proficiency in hardware, software, networks and other areas of digital technology and the importance of Digital Citizenship in dealing with global interaction. 

Keeping in mind that technologies are ever evolving, it is important to remember that the skills of the 21^st Century enable people to use tools “to accomplish an objective that is otherwise unobtainable (such as the remote collaboration of a team scattered across the globe via groupware)” (Bellanca & Brandt, 2010, p.63). This new type of “distributed cognition” (p. 63) is reflected in the framework created by Henry Jenkins in 2009.  Navigating multiple forms of media and using one’s judgment to select appropriate media to use is a demonstration of Research and Information Literacy.  Having a sense of experimentation and discovery in the constructions of models for real-world processes reflects the ability to problem solve, think critically and make decisions.  Collaborating, networking and negotiating harness the power of the collective intelligence of a team.  Finally, the ability to use, synchronize, scan various digital technologies to access and use information demonstrates proficiency in operations of technology.  

Please view my visual representation of these frameworks:

http://screencast.com/t/5UEa3Ox3H8Ze

References:

Bellanca, J. A., & Brandt, R. S. (2010). 21st century skills: rethinking how students learn. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

"Mini-course" for STEM teachers

This is our final project and it has many components.  I created a mini-course using Web 2.0 tools in Math and Science classrooms.  My basis for creating a course for this subject is that the topic of STEM education is being pushed by the Obama administration in order to ensure that our students do not lag behind the rest of the world in these important skills. I used the Bundles seciton of My Big Campus to create the course.  As an incentive for the teachers, they will earn Badges that can be used for Industry cetification, plus 5 PGPs towards license renewal.

I used the Badge concept that an applicant to the Digital Media and Learning Competition suggested http://dmlcompetition.net/Competition/4/badges-projects.php?id=2938.  This was supposed to be in collaboration with Mozilla.

I also created collage of tools and resources, using Symbaloo EDU, 

http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/web20tools-resources, for the teachers who attend this course.  They can use this resource to access educational magazines, blogs, or tools. They can add their own as they grow in their professional development. 

Finally, I created a new page in my blog to advertise my course and share the link to it from My Big Campus. The organization that I created to host this course is named MTI STEM.

Will emerging technologies change my profession?

Whether we like it or not technology is here to stay, and all of us have to find our own way of embracing it and making it fit into our lives and professions.  Mobile ways of communicating, like emails and cell phones, are now the norm, and social networks seem to be emerging as the easiest way of exchanging and dissiminating information.  The world has become digital and if the goal of education is to prepare students to succeed in it, then we must teach them how to use technology in a way that will benefit them.  Just like any other tool, if used properly, it can add value and enrich the experience of learning. Since students are already very engaged with texting, facebook and online games, they are very comfortable with the use of various applications and have no fear of experimenting with new ones.  This interest and ability can be chanelled by using applications that engage their minds into online projects that seemlessly bring in the concepts and vocabulary of the subject. As stated by Dede (1996, p.2),"Expanding traditional definitions of literacy and rhetoric into immersion-centered experiences of interacting and information is crucial to preparing students for full participation in 21st century society". If we don't bring technology into the classroom, as an essential resource, the cost will be that our students will not be prepared for the new type of job market.

Our role is to redifine"how we communicate and educate by using new types of messages and experiences to be more effective" (Dede, 1996, p.2). It is hard to break out of our old patterns of traditional "teaching by telling"but as pointed out in Ravitch: The toll of school reform on public education, "the pattern on the rug" is becoming apparent. Unless we want to become outdated in our job skills we will need to learn this new method of teaching. Our students are used to accessing information whenever and wherever they want, but many do not know how to stay on task and end up wandering the internet from one site to another. We need to teach our students how to filter through "a plethera of incoming information"(Dede, 1996, p.2) and discover patterns of knowledge and then learn to use this knowledge in ways that address real world problems. This type of learning helps them to retain the information because they are "learning-through-doing"(Dede,1996). Hopefully, this will help them get better scores on their standardized tests and make our jobs more secure! I hope the picture is not as gloomy as Ravitch states that "computers will replace teachers".  I guess I just can't see that happening.  We will always need teachers, just in a different capacity.  Just because information is available does not mean it makes sense, or that children will not need someone to guide them in critical thinking. I still think you need the human element in this model of teaching for it to be effective. I can see where Game-Based learning and simulations can give the student real world experiences, but we can't forget that the underlying purpose of the whole experience is to learn the skill to engage other humans in science exploration, business, medical or military work. Teachers will still be needed to guide students in exploring the new world of information, in learning critical thinking, and in facilitating collaboration.As Dede states,"Technology-mediated communication and experience supplement, but do not replace, immediate involvement in real settings" (Dede, 1996, p.24). 




Works Cited:

Ravitch: The toll of school reform on public education

Emerging Technologies and Distributed Learning

My experience with Digital Game-Based learning

For the second part of this Module 9 we had to play a game, and analyze what we learned.   According to Prensky (2006), there are two categories of games. The first is Mini games, or Edutainment games, that can be played in less than two hours, with one to two players. They are learning games that involve repetitive type of problem solving. The second category is complex, or serious games that can last for days and can involve many players.  They can take hours to master various levels and can use alternate identities for the players. The game I picked is called Virtual Village 4: The Tree of Life.  I would classify this game as a beginning level serious game. In this game the Island life is dying and the Chief of the village picks five villagers to help him revive the island. The player gets to pick their own five villagers based on what skills you think will be necessary for survival.  The villagers do not have the skills when the game starts, but the player can help them learn these skills by moving them to various places on the board to do certain tasks.  The tasks involve learning to build huts, research, healing, farming, etc.  As the villagers learn skills, the player earns points that can then be used as cash to purchase various items for the village. I thought it was funny that, if you leave the game for a while, your villagers continue to learn and grow with the skills you left them with, and you can come back and add more skills.

Since this is the first time I have played a game, I wanted to select a game that was a little slower pace, but still involved multitasking. In this game, I had to keep an eye on all the villagers, and help each build the right individual skills for the village that would help them survive. As stated in Hung (2011), my “learning occurred in a “spiral” in which players are exposed to increasing degrees of complexity and gradually get to learn the total system” (p.14).  Being a beginner at games, at first I was really confused as to what to do, and then through trial and error, I learned what I needed to do to get the villagers to learn skills.

My challenge was being new to the whole environment of Digital Game-Based learning (DGBL).  I had to get over my fear of pressing the wrong button, but just like my villagers, I too learned that persistence and experimentation does pay off.  I used to think that these games were just wasting the time of children and all they do is teach kids to shoot at each other constantly. Through my experience and the reading from this week’s research, I have come to appreciate what the possibilities are in this tool. With DGBL, students can learn to think through a problem, use experimentation to investigate, multitask, and parallel process (Prensky, 2006, pp.8-9).  So it took me some time to coordinate and understand how to move the players, where to move them, and figure out what they needed to learn and achieve.  I thought I did not have the ability to get the hang of the game, but I surprised myself.  I experimented with something I did not feel comfortable with and began to understand the fascination and pull that these games have for kids.  I can understand now how once you get involved in a task of a game, you become so committed that you have to finish it, or achieve the next level, even if it takes hours. 

Prensky (2006), states that there are component in games that keep kids engaged. These include “leveling up” or going up levels as you master them, the game adapting to the abilities of the player, worthy goals, and making decisions.  If these components can be included in the games we pick for our classrooms then learning can be enhanced.  By picking games that embed the knowledge of concepts in the games “learning occurs in meaningful and relevant contexts,…and is more effective than learning that occurs outside of those contexts, as is the case, with most formal instruction.  This principle is situated cognition” (Van Eck, 2006, p.4) or learning.  As they play a game they become aware of all issues that come into play in decision making and actions.  They would learn the language of the subject and the use of the tools in investigating and analyzing.  According to (Klopfer, Coulter, Perry, and Sheldon) students should develop their reading skills as they play these games, and because the games make them focus on a goal they learn to “filter the relevant from the non-relevant”.  They also learn to tap into the experiences of a pool of people by collaboration among many players.

Here is a picture of me attempting to play Virtual Village 4.

  

 

Works Cited:

Prensky, M. (2006).  The really good news about kid’s games.  “Don’t bother me Mom, I’m learning!” : how computer and video games are preparing your kids for twenty-first century success and how you can help! (pp. 7-15). St. Paul, Minn.  : Paragon House.

Prensky, M. (2006). Complexity matters: What most adults don’t understand about games.  “Don’t bother me Mom, I’m learning!”: how computer and video games are preparing your kids for twenty-first century success and how you can help! (pp. 55-63). St.  Paul, Minn.  : Paragon House.

Klopfer, E., Coulter, R., Perry, J. and Sheldon, J. “ Discovering Familiar Places: Learning through Mobile Place-Based Games”. In Press for S. Barab, K. Squire and C. Steinkuehler.  Games, Learning, and Society: Learning in the Digital Age. Cambridge University Press.

Hung, A. C. (2011). Serious games and education. The work of play: meaning –making in videogames (pp. 10-29). New York: Peter Lang.

Van Eck, R., (March/April 2006), Digital Game-Based Learning: It’s Not just the Digital Natives who are restless… . Educause, Vol. 41, no.2 ,1-16.

Creating a playlist for your class

This weeks assignment involves working with games as a medium or tool to learn how they can be used in the classroom to enhance learning of concepts.  As part one of this assignment, we worked with a program called Mentormob to create a playlist for a topic of interest. I chose the topic that I am teaching so that I can use this next school year. The playlist I created will cover the first semester of Chemistry.  It has videos, games and demonstrations that can be used to introduce, teach or review a topic.  Here is the link to my playlist  http://bit.ly/HI0WlI. The Mentormob program is a very helpful way to put all your videos, lectures, games., quizes in one place.  The students can then access all of them whenever they need to.